Autonomous Dial-a-Ride Transit (ADART)

Part 1- Technical Overview

Prepared for
Federal Transit Administration
Research, Demonstration, and Innovation
Service Innovation Division
Washington, D.C. 20590

Prepared by
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Service Assessment Division
November 1998

Acknowledgements

Table Of Contents

Glossary

Chapter 1 OVERVIEW OF AUTONOMOUS DIAL-A-RIDE TRANSIT

Chapter 2 DIAL-A-RIDE TRANSIT STATE OF THE ART

Chapter 3 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

Chapter 4 REVIEW OF VEHICLE NAVIGATION HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

Chapter 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

References

Appendix

Footnotes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report is a distillation of four separate papers prepared under Phase 1 of the Autonomous Dial-a-Ride (ADART) Project:

• "Autonomous Dial-a-Ride Transit Introductory Overview" by Robert B. Dial of the U.S. Department of Transportation/Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
• "State of the Practice in Dial-a-Ride Transit" by Mark Bucciarelli, Consultant
• "Autonomous Dial-a-Ride Transit Mobile Communications" by Franco Vitaliano of VXM Technologies, Inc.
• "Review of Vehicle Navigation Hardware and Software Systems" by William C. Schwegler, Telcontar, Inc.

The Service Assessment Division of the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center provided technical support for Phase 1 of the ADART project, sponsored by the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority with funding provided under a research grant from the Federal Transit Administration. Rob Smith was the Phase 1 Project Manager for the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority. Michael Jacobs is the Chief of the Volpe Center's Service Assessment Division and Robert B. Dial is the Volpe Center's ADART Project Manager and the originator of the ADART concept. Bert Arrillaga, Chief of the Federal Transit Administration's Service Innovation Division, Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation, is the Technical Monitor for the project. Melissa M. Laube and Samuel Lau of the Volpe Center edited the original four papers for compilation into a single document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 AN OVERVIEW OF AUTONOMOUS DIAL-A-RIDE TRANSIT

1.1 ADART Operations Defined
1.2 Vehicle Deployment
1.3 Fully Automated Dispatching
1.4 Trip-End Geocoding
1.5 On-Board Command and Control
1.6 ADART Benefits
1.7 Organization of Report

2.0 DIAL-A-RIDE TRANSIT STATE OF THE ART

2.1 History
2.2 State of Dispatching Technology
2.3 State of Dial-a-Ride
2.4 Conclusion

3.0 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

3.1 Mobile Communications Framework
3.2 Requirements for Developing a Wireless Application
3.3 Current State of the Art: Systems, Technologies, and Vendors
3.4 Near Term Wireless Forecast
3.5 ADART Applications Development
3.6 A Computer Operating System for ADART
3.7 Proposed Wireless Architecture for ADART
3.8 Conclusions

4.0 REVIEW OF VEHICLE NAVIGATION HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

4.1 Vehicle Navigation Systems Defined
4.2 Description of Software Products Reviewed
4.3 General Description of Each Hardware Product Reviewed
4.4 Requirements and Desirable Features for an ADART Vehicle Navigation Hardware and Software System
4.5 Evaluation Results and Conclusion

5.0 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

A description (as of Winter, 2000) of this project is available.